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All tasting notes
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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2021 and 2024 (based on 4 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 91.7 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 8 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Mtnmd1 on 12/6/2022 & rated 92 points: Aromatics in full swing on opening. Could drink the wine in by that alone. Medium body and finish. Dark fruits in balance for classic BB syrah (239 views) | | | Tasted by ClaytonDave on 3/9/2022 & rated 92 points: Ready now. Soft tannins, full bodied,yet soft. Black cherry on the palate. (264 views) | | | Tasted by ClaytonDave on 2/4/2022 & rated 93 points: Black cherry and dark fruit. Excellent and ready. (269 views) | | | Tasted by Libbidog on 2/4/2021 & rated 91 points: Appearance
The wine is deep ruby.
Nose
The wine is developing and exhibits pronounced intensity with aromas of blackberry, black cherry, black plum, black pepper, dried thyme, cedar, vanilla, crushed stone and grilled red meat.
Palate
The wine is dry with medium (+) body, high acidity, medium tannins, high alcohol, and exhibits pronounced flavors of black cherry, blackberry, plum, black licorice, vanilla, and dried thyme with a medium finish.
Conclusion
The quality of the wine is very good. It is still developing nicely in the bottle but can certainly be enjoyed now. I am always impressed with the wines from this great Santa Cruz mountain producer. Huge bang for the buck. Life and wine are good! (563 views) | | | Tasted by missionpk on 8/30/2020: Enjoyable, young, and complex. (752 views) | | | Tasted by Mike Dildine on 1/17/2019 & rated 91 points: Ripe plum, leather and black pepper. Will be even better with a few more years in the bottle. (1026 views) |
| By Antonio Galloni
Vinous, Santa Cruz Mountains – The Gorgeous 2016s (Aug 2018) (8/1/2018)
(Big Basin Vineyards Syrah Old Corral Central Coast Red) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| Big Basin Vineyards Producer website
Big Basin Vineyards was founded in 1998 in the Santa Cruz Mountains next to Big Basin Redwoods State Park, with a new winery building completed in 2003. Proprietor and wine maker Bradley Brown sources his wines from three Estate Vineyards - Rattlesnake Rock, Old Corral Block and Homestead Block. All of the Estate vineyards are planted to Alban Selections on steep hillsides with mudstone and shale soils - 7 acres of Syrah, 2 acres of Grenache and 1 acre of Roussanne - and are farmed organically. Additionally, Bradley works closely with Coastview Vineyard located at 2400 ft on a mountain top in the Gabilan Mountains overlooking the Salinas Valley and Monterey Bay (several miles due south of Mt. Harlan). He has contracted with the vineyard to purchase Syrah planted in 1998 and to bud over certain sections of the vineyard to Pinot Noir and Grenache (in 2008) and plant a new block to an Alban selection of Syrah. This vineyard is also farmed organically and managed according to Bradley's direction. Beginning in 2006, Big Basin started making Pinot Noir sourced from the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of 2009, Big Basin is making three different single vineyard Pinots from the Santa Cruz Mountains (Alfaro Family, Lester Family and Woodruff Family Vineyards), plus the Pinot from Coastview Vineyard in the Gabilan Mountains.
Best known for Syrah, but also makes Pinot Noirs and blends.Syrah Varietal article (Wikipedia) | (Wines Northwest)
Note that some producers in the Northern Rhone distinguish between simply Syrah and "Serine", the latter described as ‘an ancient clone of Syrah, the berries of which are more oval-shaped and less deeply pigmented than Syrah’ by producer Tardieu-Laurent. USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Santa Cruz Mountains Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association | Wikipedia
Once referred to by wine writers as the Chaine d'Or -- or "golden chain" -- the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA sits above Silicon Valley, running along the craggy range next to the Pacific on some of the prettiest parts of Northern California. The area supports more than 75 wineries, despite being limited by geography and high land prices.
In 1981 the Santa Cruz Mountains Viticultural Appellation became federally recognized, one of the first American viticultural areas to be defined by geophysical and climatic factors. The appellation encompasses the Santa Cruz Mountain range, from Half Moon Bay in the north, to Mount Madonna in the south. The east and west boundaries are defined by elevation, extending down to 800 feet in the east and 400 feet in the west. |
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